http://news.bbc.co.u...ll/14992738.stm

Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has complained to referees chief Mike Riley about the performance of the officials during his side's 3-1 loss at Manchester United on Sunday.

Replays showed United's first two goals were both scored by players who had been in offside positions.

Villas-Boas said: "I'm very unhappy with a poor display from the referees that had a decisive role in the result.

"I don't take it very lightly. You expect the linesman to do his job."

The former Porto manager, 33, added: "I already went further ahead with the situation by speaking to the correct people.

"We all feel very, very down when the referee [Phil Dowd] had such an impact on the result.""

This is justified in that there is an argument to be made that we might not have lost had the referee or linesman made the correct call 100% of the time. However ultimately I doubt there has ever been a match where the referee has been correct in 100% of his calls, and this won't change anything so I'm not sure what the utility of this is, unless AVB is looking to take some of the responsibility for the defeat off the shoulders of the players.

What do you all think?

Edited September 20, 201113 yr by PloKoon13

Not overly happy about this, I dont like it when our manager comes out and has a go at a ref.

I guess he might also be trying to shift some of the media attention away from the Ashley Cole tackle and the Torres miss?

Not overly happy about this, I dont like it when our manager comes out and has a go at a ref.

True but he's not done it in a Fergie/Wenger manner, he has just said he was unhappy and has submitted a complain.

I don't like it. I would expect it from Ferguson and Wenger, but usually Chelsea managers don't do this. Make him seem a bit whiney.

I could have accepted it if there was huge mistakes in the game, like in that infamous game against Barcelona, but even though I didn't think the ref was great, the two offside goals was very difficult to spot. We're talking about inches during game play. It's not fun when we get goals like that against us, but the refs are only human and to get those decisions spot on every time is damn near impossible.

Then it was perhaps a bigger mistake not to send Cole off or atleast give a penalty to ManU.

No, let Ferguson scream until his face turns red (more than usual) and let's not sink to that level. Accept that the refs can't be perfect and that we lost because we didn't score enough goals and let in some weak ones.

In my opinion it is a ridiculous complaint. yes both decisions were wrong but there were both very tight calls rather than 'yards offside'. Concentrate on your priorities and don't get involved in this sort of nonsense. If he is playing the mind games malarky then he is out of his league just now when it comes to taking on Fergie and shouldn't be wasting his time on it.

I dont disagree with him doing it, but I think its premature despite what happened on sunday. After a year or two in charge, then I would expect him to do stuff like this.

But if its his strategy to take the pressure off the players, then by all means.

Oh dear, not a good move. Why not just move on and concentrate on the things his team did wrong, not the officials.

Thought the man had bit more class, he'd better get used to those sort of decisions, especially in BIG games, just wait till the latter stages of the Champs League !!!!!!!!!!

Just to let you all know that the guy to whom we have complained - well-known Manure fan and now refs supremo Mike Riley - was at the game on Sunday. Sitting in the Old Trafford Directors box.

I don't think this is a knee-jerk response from AVB. Him and Roberto obviously watched the game afterwards from video and decided that if they are ever going talk to chief of referees you need to start it from the first time you feel decisions went wrong. From now on you need to talk about them even after games you win not to look like a fool.

I didn't feel decisions went wrong watching the game. I wasn't unhappy about the ref as much as our defending.

I just feel whatever AVB does he has an idea behind it. Could be wrong though.

I think it is the right thing to do. There were some obvious, game changing slip ups from the refs and that cant be denied. So it is a good way to put pressure on the refs in the future chelsea matches.

Theres a good chance the refs will be overly cautious not to make future bad calls against chelsea.

Don't really have a problem with this. He's simply stating a fact, and doing so in a measured way. If he was ranting and raving about it, it would be a bit OTT, but both decisions, and the penalty, were wrong, and did have a huge impact on the result, so he and we have every right to make that point.

I can't say I am that pleased that he has bothered to make a complaint, but he is well within his rights to do so and if it takes the pressure off our lads a little bit and winds up a few people in the way that fungus does then so be it.

I picked up the Mail's story before reading this. Some of the comments made me chuckle.

the failure to mark Smalling,

To be fair we should have picked him up and there wouldn't have been an issue, but he was errr, offside.

So I guess he did not mind the challenge by Ashley Cole not getting a penalty or a red card. The ref made mistakes both ways. The better team still won.

Dermot Gallagher and Jeff Winter have both confirmed that Dowd made the right decision in not giving a penalty because the ball was out of play. A fact I made whilst unfortunately watching the game surrounded by people grunting in red shirts

http://www.sportingp...2/11120704.php?

Smalling was offside for the first goal, Nani for the second but Fergie did not mention those incidents. Phil Dowd has matured into one of our strongest and best officials and between himself and his assistant, was spot on in cautioning Ashley Cole but not awarding a penalty. As my former colleague Dermott Gallagher explained on SSN, if the ball is not in play it is not a penna.

Edited September 20, 201113 yr by Scooby Blue

Dowd really does seem to have it in for us. He was the one who gave that non-pen at Spuds the other day when the ball hit JT on the torso. The position he was standing in made it impossible to have seen any contact with the arm even if there had been any. He later sent JT off. The previous season he sent JT off up at Everton - his only ever straight red, I think (apart from the one from Halsey at City which was later rescinded).

what good can come from making the complaint ?

I really cant think of anything positive for our club, it will just be seen as whinging, why cant we leave that to our rivals.

One good thing about Ancellotti was his reluctance to blame the officials, i much prefer this stance.

Edited September 20, 201113 yr by bluedeano

It's not going to do us anything, but AVB has every rights to do it. Carlo was a real gentlement, but I don't expect every manager to behave like that. After all, when was the last time Fergi didn't complain when things went against them?

I think he's done it to highlight the fact that despite what red nose constantly says manu do get favourable decisions, especially at home. Maybe one step towards levelling the playing field?

I'm fine with it. He didn't go shouting after the game - he went through the proper measures, and lodged the complaint.

I'm sure nothing will come of it - but I respect him for doing it in the right way, rather than going on a 'silence strike' against the Beeb or moaning continually during the post-match interview.

Just to make the obvious point that its not the ref that makes the offside calls. Soccer is a big money professional game where a lot hangs on the decisions of officials who clearly will make mistakes fairly often and some of those mistakes will be expensive. You just hope that over time the mistakes average out and that there is no bias involved.

For all of us who watch professional Rugby or Gridiron or Cricket or Tennis its very clear that soccer should make more use of the review technology. Managers could be given 2 challenges per half decided by video evidence for offside and hand ball decisions.

AVB is being professional.

Better team won. They were clinical in finishing and only goals count..but I have to point out that it is that much easier for a ref to do his job at OT if ManU is winning and cruising.

Think about how much booing from the crowd and whining from the players he has to face when they are losing. Every time Nani falls down players would crowd him and 60k fans screaming for his head.

As ZLC said he didn't complain about the refs right after the game to an interviewer uninformed. He watched the game from video and decided he should call one of SAF's best friends

This is fine in my opinion, as someone mentioned just above he didnt go do a fergie after the game and blame anyone and everything for any defeat his team has suffered. He has gone through the proper channels and if nothing else with any luck the media will focus on that now and lay off ashley and nando. Someone mentioned above that maybe he should be doing this if he had been here for a season or two, please explain what difference that would make??

Btw ozboy, nice idea in principle (as much as i wouldnt like it) but no way that could be put into reality. Would become too much of a tactical play for the mangers, sure there are plenty of occasions where it would be geniunally used but there would also be a lot of times a manager might see the other tem is building up momentum or dominating them and just use one to try and break that up

This is fine in my opinion, as someone mentioned just above he didnt go do a fergie after the game and blame anyone and everything for any defeat his team has suffered. He has gone through the proper channels and if nothing else with any luck the media will focus on that now and lay off ashley and nando. Someone mentioned above that maybe he should be doing this if he had been here for a season or two, please explain what difference that would make??

Btw ozboy, nice idea in principle (as much as i wouldnt like it) but no way that could be put into reality. Would become too much of a tactical play for the mangers, sure there are plenty of occasions where it would be geniunally used but there would also be a lot of times a manager might see the other tem is building up momentum or dominating them and just use one to try and break that up

Not sure whose or what comment do you mean but I pointed out earlier that if you are ever going to talk to that authority you need to do it every time you feel something went wrong, even in the games you win. Otherwise it feels like you can't handle losing.

Not sure whose or what comment do you mean but I pointed out earlier that if you are ever going to talk to that authority you need to do it every time you feel something went wrong, even in the games you win. Otherwise it feels like you can't handle losing.

Just checked, it was westway wonder, to be fair he did also say if it was to take pressure off the players then he is all for it. I just dont see how it makes a difference how long he has been here for

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,11668_7191833,00.html

Andre Villas-Boas insists his decision to lodge a complaint to referees' chief Mike Riley is not an attempt to influence officiating in Chelsea games.

The Blues boss has acted after seeing his side on the wrong end of some contentious decisions during a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United on Sunday.

The Portuguese coach suffered his first defeat in English football at Old Trafford, and his first league setback in 17 months following a productive spell at Porto.

He was disappointed with the nature of the loss, with replays showing that United's first two goals were plundered by players who had been in offside positions.

Villas-Boas also believes that the Red Devils were awarded a 'soft' second half penalty, which Wayne Rooney ballooned wide after losing his footing.

Important

The Chelsea manager revealed on Tuesday that he had contacted Riley regarding the performance of the officials on show, but he claims there is no ulterior motive behind his complaint.

He said: "Nothing is going to change regarding the performance of the referees and I'm not trying to influence decisions, just calling attention to the fact that this situation happened and it played an extremely important part in the result."

Villas-Boas also insisted he had not asked for Sunday's referee, Phil Dowd, to be withdrawn from future Chelsea matches.

"I would never do that," he said.

"The game should be human, with as many emotions as possible, and I think that the referees have a major part to play."

Mistake

Poor officiating did not mask the fact that, despite dominating Sunday's game in an attacking sense, Chelsea once again looked extremely vulnerable at the back.

But Villas-Boas was adamant that was not the case, saying: "I cannot lose my time organising my defensive set plays for the referee to make a mistake like that - I'm sorry.

"You organise a team to defend a set play, to be coherent, to hold the line, and then there is a person who does not do his job.

"We had an incident like this against Sunderland the other day - offside not given.

"So it's not a question of organisation, it's not a question of defensive fragilities. It's a question of a mistake that you pay the penalty for."

----------------------------

To be honest, I hope he didn't spend too much time organising defensive set pieces because offside or not, there were two players free on the back post:S

AVB needs to highlight the decisions that went against us on Sunday. It is smart management. For my money he needs to make more of the penalty decision and the free-kick that led to their first goal, both of which were dodgy.

Fergie has built up a lie over the years that Chelsea get the decisions against them. He has done it quite adeptly. As such, we have suffered, not only on Sunday, but last season at OT twice. Anyone who thinks there is no relationship between his continual bleating about our "soft" penalty at the Bridge last season (it was a penalty) and the fact Luiz didn't get sent off and the fact they then went on to get hugely favourable decisions in both our CL games and crunch Premiership game is deluded.

AVB needs to redress the balance. Change the perception. Otherwise referees will continually victimise us. Already this season we have had stonewall penalties denied us. I am fully convinced that had the offence been the other way, Dowd would not have given the penalty. It was far from clear-cut.

Even the season before, Fergie was going on about our offside goal when their goal was scored via a handball. Because Carlo said nothing, all the focus was on the offside. We need a manager who doesn't allow that to happen, otherwise we suffer. In the earlier encounter at the Bridge, all the focus (quite remarkably) was on the free-kick given against Fletcher (which led to our goal), when the real story was the kung-fu kick on Drogba that led to him being booked. It was a straight red and pen, as Carlo should have said. I do not want a manager who keeps schtum. That just allows other managers to have it their way. This was a massive failing of Carlo's in my opinion. He did not want to upset anybody.

Ashley Cole's challenge has made headlines. Headlines on the back page. Really. It was a bad challenge in my opinion. Reckless at best. Fergie then said Ashley has a history of such tackles, which is nonsense. Quite adeptly, Fergie is changing the perception of Cole as a dirty player (which he's not). This puts us at a disadvantage. Ashley had better be careful in the immediate future. Fergie has made sure of that, while also creating the illusion they were wronged, whereas they were the beneficiaries of the officials. AVB needs to make that clear. The worst thing he could do is keep schtum. That's exactly what Fergie wants him to do.